| jey |
Hello Mark, welcome to HarderFaster. You’re fast carving a name for yourself as a solo artist but will also be known to many people as one of the original members of Public Domain. How did you get into the scene, and into djing and producing? Take us back to the beginning.
Hi Kate, thanks a lot for the invite. I’ve been djing for just over 10 years now but it all started off back in the rave days. I loved the scene from an early age and decided to get more involved with it by saving all my pennies and buying some decks etc. I practised like mad and around about the same time I got friendly with Trevor Reilly, a big local dj because we shopped in the same record shop together in Glasgow, 23rd Precinct. I eventually got some demo tapes together and he heard them in my car at the weekends when we were goin’ up to Glasgow every weekend. After some brainwashing he offered me a warm-up slot one night at the infamous “original” Hanger 13 in Ayr in Scotland where I live. I then worked my way up the local clubbing ladder by moving onto clubs like the Aquarium (Irvine) and the Metro (Saltcoats). I really got the bug and haven’t stopped since!
On the keyboard and production front my mum and dad bought me a keyboard for my 8th birthday so I started dabbling (well really just pressing the big yellow demo button and pretending I was Jean-Michelle Jarre) and then eventually started going to proper lessons which I stuck at for around 9 years, working my way up the grades. This also tied in with Trevor again because he was in the middle of setting up a recording studio at the time when we were travelling together up and down to Glasgow. One day he asked me into the studio to see it. He heard me playing some stuff and was really impressed so we teamed up and recorded some bits together. After some really hard work and determination my djing started to take off, but I fell away from producing for a few years simply because I didn’t have enough time on my hands to do everything — keep a full time job, do my radio show on West FM (which I started doing around this period and still do today), and obviously my djing gigs at the weekends.
In 2000 I got back into production by a chance meeting with two guys, James Allan and Alistair McIsaac one night when I was in the pub. They told me they were fans of what I was doing at the time, that they were both doing HNCs in Audio Engineering (at the SAE college in Glasgow) and that they wanted to do a track with me. This was perfect because I had the idea of ‘Operation Blade’ in my head because at that time I had been dropping the New Order ‘Confusion’ track (used in the film Blade at the blood-bath scene) and had also been scratching over the top of it using an old Public Enemy acapella that said “Bass For Your Face London” at all of my gigs — every time I played it there was causing carnage so I thought I really needed to take this idea into the studio! That’s how it all started with the Public Domain side of things to be honest . . . we were the three original members of PD with Mallorca Lee joining us as our MC shortly after and as a co-producer on four of our album tracks that he had produced, along with his studio partner at the time David Forbes..
Those familiar with your recent tunes will associate you with the techy end of trance or perhaps the trancier end of techno, depending on which tunes and how you look at it. You produce under a few names, obviously under the Public Domain guise and also as Outburst, is there any distinct difference to which moniker you use?
If you compare the older Public Domain releases to the newer ones there’s a substantial difference — the new stuff is a lot tougher and techier but still has that slightly commercial edge because that’s what the Public Domain sound has always been. The Outburst stuff that I produce on my own on the other hand is full on “lets aaaave it” tech-trance which I really love producing, as well as the productions that I do with James Allan on Detox etc.
For the first time in my life I’m writing music for myself and not for any record label sitting on my shoulder telling me what to write, change, re-arrange or edit, basically making us re-work everything that we have been working on. We’ve really sweated blood on some occasions, but no more of that nonsense. I’ve got my selfish head on now — if I like the riff or sample or loop, then it goes in the track. If you don’t like it — bugger off !!! End of story. It probably comes across in my music that I’ve reached a rebellious point in my life but it’s great fun.
It’s really cool that I have a small studio setup at home as well as having a pro studio along the road from me that I run with James, who I do all of the Public Domain stuff with. It’s like having the best of both worlds. I can have a great laugh in the PD studio with James and also Neil Skinner (our live MC and vocalist) when he’s up from London working with us but then I can also work in the comfort of my own home, on my own, experimenting a bit more and producing my Outburst gear with the lights off and the curtains closed, totally 100% in the zone !!
How do you achieve your sound, what hardware and software do you use?
I have always used Cubase so I’m on one of the latest versions of that which is Cubase SX (I don’t like Cubase SX 3 though). My Outburst gear is all soft synth based using Vanguard (which I have around 18 banks/soundsets for), V-Station, Pro-53, Absynth 3 and some other synths. I can really reccommend the Synthation soundsets for all of these, which you can buy at www.synthation.net I also use the Camel plug-ins which are tremendous, Ohmboys, Waves FX pack, Ultrafunk FX pack, URS EQ’s and a combination of other sound-bending distorting twisting sound breaking and confusing bits and bobs !!
When I start a track I have to start with creating a groove first and foremost. I start with the kickdrum and then build up chopped loops and sounds/hits around it to make a solid groove sometimes adding sub tones to the kick to add power and some balls. I then move on to the bassline and following that I’ll add some overlying or underlying basslines/grooves/patterns. I then move on to the melodies or riffs depending on the style of track that I’m working on, just basically building the whole track up steadily as I go along. The best advice I can give to someone is to really prepare before you start a track. Listen to all of your samples that you have in your system or on a sample CD of drums, loops, vocals, snips etc and put all of the ones that you like into a project folder. I find that this really speeds up the work process and keeps the ideas flowing while you working instead of stopping and starting trying to find samples that you like on the way — it makes your work a lot more instant and enjoyable. I would also recommend that you get a copy of Recycle. It’s the best way of regurgitating drumloops and really making them your own. I couldn’t work without it nowadays. Stylus RMX is also a HUGE programme and is one of the best on the market for loops and drum hits. I think it’s sheer class!
You’ve just had your second release on Riot! (a Mark Sherry EP) featuring collaborations with two of the hottest guys in hard dance, BK and Nick Sentience. How did your association with Riot! (one of my favourite labels) come about?
It was a great buzz for me! Ed Real has been looking after me with quality tunage for years since his Nukleuz/BXR days so it was great to catch up with him one day on MSN after we had lost touch for almost a year. He immediately signed my track ‘Fractured’ and after a few months of things going well Ed mentioned that Nick Sentience was wanting me to go down and do a collab with him in London at Riot! HQ. I had no idea that he had been playing a lot of my stuff but it turned out that he was really digging what I was producing. When Ben (BK) found out that I was planning on going down for a few days to work with Nick he also organised some time with me because he was really supporting my gear as well. It ended up being a four day session in both of their studios which was extremely enjoyable, and a learning curve for us all because I use Cubase and they use Logic, but we got there. The guys were true gents and very cool to work with.
We more or less nailed ‘Amino’ and ‘Wildfire’ in the time that we had together, although, I wasn’t totally convinced with the first riff that we had agreed on for ‘Amino’ so I ended up going home after our four days and then working on it at home in Scotland for an extra day or so and it was then that I cracked the riff that we ended up using in the final mix. I emailed the new breakdown parts down to Ben and he then re-worked them it into his Logic file. The release has had some really great support from all of the top tech-trance jocks and is still being played by Marco V, Sander van Doorn etc. We were all very happy with the collab EP so we have already discussed doing some more work together soon, hopefully this year if all goes well.
You’ve done some immense remixes. I love your mix of Scott Mac’s classic ‘Damager 02’and of course your 2006 mix of the mighty Marzz — ‘Orbiter’. Is there any tune you’d like to have a go at remixing that you haven’t already? And any more remixed gems in the pipeline for us?
It was a great honour for Scott to ask me to remix ‘Damager’. I caned the original to death! I had loads of fun remixing it and it really set me up for some more remix offers like Marzz and Ratty (‘Sunrise’) etc. etc. One of my all time favourite tracks is the DJ Ricci remix of Transformer 2’s ‘Pacific Symphony’. It was the last track of the night played every week at Hanger 13 that I’ve mentioned before back in the original rave days. I have so many memories of this track getting played. It was a time when all the classic stuff was getting released like Hardfloor’s ‘Acperience’, Ramirez — ‘Hablando’, Glam — ‘Hell’s Party’ etc. It was such an exciting time for music and I think a lot of the originality and feeling that was present in the tracks back then has now vanished from today’s dance music — which is very sad. I am going to look at doing my own rework of this track, when I get the time anyway. It will just be for my dj sets because I don’t know the guys personally, but if you’re reading this, gimme a shout !! Haha!
On a tech trance tip Marcel Woods, Marco V and of course yourself can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. What artists and labels are doing it for you right now?
Everything on Detox, Spinnin, Be Yourself/High Contrast, Riot!, Silicon, Five AM and Tekelec is really floating my proverbial boat just now. Any labels, artists, or remixers that are trying different ideas or different production techniques in their tracks are all getting my big nod of approval. If I hear one more appergiated detuned riff in a track I will really start to cry, there’s so much boring trancey drivel around just now, it really cracks me up. But the labels I’ve mentioned are really breaking the mould and are really only releasing stuff that’s a break from the norm, real edgy music with balls.
Sander van Doorn, Mac + Mac, Marcel Woods, Valentino Kanzyani, Scot Project, JK Walker, Fred Baker, Vinylgroover, Jowan, Gleave, Fabio Stein, Krzysztof Choclow, Ryan Blair and Maori are all names that are constantly appearing in all of my dj sets just now and also on my radio show. Again they are all artists that aren’t scared to try new ideas in the studio. The more established ones that I’ve mentioned have moved with the times production-wise but have also managed to retain their familiar formulaic production styles, which is a clever thing to accomplish.
The newer kids on the production block that I’ve mentioned have really grabbed my attention because they are pushing their sound to the max without imitating other producers and are really not afraid to turn dance music around making really original sounding compositions. Tech-trance is where it’s at for me just now. Tech-trance, techno and electro are the only styles that I’m playing. |
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